Principal
Dr. Desmond O'Rourke is the founder and CEO of Belrose, Inc., world apple market analysts.  Born in Ireland, he has an undergraduate degree in Classics from Queens University, Belfast and in Business from University College, Dublin.  He worked in advertising, marketing research and business and sports journalism before getting his doctorate in agricultural economics from the University of California, Davis. 

From 1970 to May 2000, he was on the Agricultural Economics faculty at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA, specializing in fruit marketing.  For over a quarter of century, he has been the leading analyst of the economic implications of new developments in plantings, production, controlled atmosphere storage, international marketing, processing, increasing firm size and changing technology in the marketing of apples, pears and cherries. Dr. O'Rourke retired as director of the IMPACT Center for international marketing at Washington State University in May 2000 and is now employed full time as President and CEO of Belrose, Inc.

He is author of over 200 professional papers and of numerous articles in popular journals. He is author of four books, including, "Understanding the Japanese Food and Agrimarket" and "The World Apple Market", both published by Haworth Press in 1994. He contributed chapters on marketing and trade to two books published in 2003, "Apples, Botany, Production and Uses," edited by David Ferree and Ian Warrington and published by CABI Publishing and "Concise Encyclopedia of Temperate Tree Fruit", edited by Tara Baugher and Suman Singha and published by Food Products Press. Dr. O'Rourke frequently lectures on global apple issues to diverse audiences throughout the world.